Was listening to ESPN's "First Draft" podcast this morning with Kiper and McShay and they both confirmed that they were hearing from their various sources around the league that Mallett could fall all the way to the 4th round. I don't buy that for a second because I think/hope he would be scooped up by us at 41. If not by us, then the Colts or Pats will likely snatch him up to learn behind Manning/Brady for a few years.

Anyway, it's all due to off the field stuff, the supposed missed meeting in Carolina, potential drinking problem, immaturity issues, etc...

His ex-coaches and ex-teammates seem to love him when asked. No one is debating whether the guy is a first round talent. I have watched him dominate the SEC for the last 2 years and break all kinds of records for the Razorbacks. Time for him to break some for us. Let's take a chance here and swing for the fences. Is he really too risky for our 2nd round pick? I would seriously consider him for our 1st if I didnt have such a Julio Jones boner. Here are our previous 2nd rd picks that various football "experts" have brought to Washington...

I remember cringing when I heard how our war room celebrated McNabb while the Eagles were on the clock with our pick last year. I still can't believe we did that, and I can't believe how much flack I got from all the other "experts" on this message board who told me how great it was going to be that we gave away our picks for the hated Eagle QB, and that I should get over myself. Tell you what, if you thought McNabb was a great idea, why don't you spare us your opinion of which QB we should be drafting this year. I do believe that includes most of you experts! It's just too bad that the same doofus who masterminded that debacle, gets to be in charge of our next QB search. What are we paying him again? 8 million per? That whole switch to a 3-4 when we don't have the personnel for it worked out great too. Thanks dude.

Looks like I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Hey, things are looking up, football Christmas is 1 day away!

I like Locker out of all the QB's in this draft, assuming we had a shot to trade down and get him laster in the 1st round.

BUT, regarding Mallet, if he fell to the 2nd round and was available #42, I would agree he brings decent value at that point. I wouldn't trade up from #42 to get him though. I wasn't impressed with his bowl game either. He seems to have some poor decision making issues and he doesn't deal with pocket pressure all that well. Those are coachable things in some cases, but I wouldn't draft him higher on the assumption that his character issues are bunk AND his on field issues are 100% coachable. When you gamble on too many issues, you will usually get burned.

Look at how Clausen fell to the 2nd round last year. All the draft-niks talked about how he was such a steal. Like Mallet, Clausen was considered NFL ready, having run a Pro style offense with a good arm and excellent accuracy. However, Jeff George and Ryan Leaf will tell you, it ain't all about the arm.

NFL teams saw some small off the field issues and personality issues that called into question whether Clausen was ready to be a NFL team leader. Sound familiar? I think we saw, during Clausen's playing time last year, he was not all that "NFL ready" and probably didn't deserve to be drafted any higher than the 2nd round.

I was very impressed by Mallet's bowl game against the 2nd ranked D in the country. He was under heavy pressure most of night with Heyward laying on top of him and he kept bringing his over-matched team back. He was throwing deep strikes on clutch 3rd downs that were getting dropped. Watch the first play of the game when nerves were high, and he throws a 25 yd rope across the middle, hits receiver in perfect stride for a would be TD, but the WR was not as ready for the big moment as his QB and drops the ball. 2nd play, another perfect pass, another drop. This was a theme. Even during all that I never saw him embarrass his receivers or anything else you might expect for an allegedly immature guy.

Mallett is not perfect, but that's why he might be available in the 2nd round. How is he a bigger risk than taking Locker in the 1st round? You weren't impressed by Mallet's bowl game, but did you see Locker's bowl game where he went 5 for 16 for 56 yds and the coach took the ball out of his hands with the game on the line? Wouldn't taking him in the 1st round be an even bigger gamble for the Skins?

Stats don't always tell the story, but they sure paint a picture. Look at this:

Locker also had 4 games where he rushed for more than 50 yds, and 6 total Rushing TD's on the season as well. But 9 of his 17 TD's were in two home games, one against a 5th ranked Syracuse team and one against Oregon State's 86th ranked unit in triple overtime. (he had 8 passing TD's in 10 other games combined), I watched the Oregon State game. He was awesome. Showed deep touch under pressure from inside the pocket a couple of times, (which he supposedly doesn't have), and was one of the best athletes on the field. He was beating the defense to the edge constantly. He reminded me of one of my favorite college football players of all time... Heath Shuler. (Remember I'm a Vol fan). I threw a party the day the Skins drafted him. woops. Side note... Oregon State RB Jacquizz Rodgers would annoy the crap out of opposing defenses for us. That 5' 6" ball of cat-quick muscle put his foot in the dirt next to the sideline and stole 10 more yds over and over again. He was actually delivering the blow and carrying some defenders on inside runs. Love that kid... Anyway, back to Locker, it was a great game for him, and he was impressive, but he's playing a different type of game. He repeatedly takes one look for his WR and then takes off running. Maybe that can be coached out. He even did it during the 2 minute drill though. One play was so obvious the announcers stopped and showed the audience the wide open guy down-field that they thought Locker looked directly at, but then inexplicably ran instead. Right now at least, that's his first instinct. It's going to take a while to get down the field like that, but it can work. Watching Mallet look people off and take shot after shot down the field is like watching a totally different brand of football, and I don't have to tell you which one more resembles the pro game.

Anyway, if you forget all the lip-smackers, and really just watch these guys play football and execute the job of QB, and honestly look at their stats, it's hard to make the case (to me at least) that Locker is somehow less risky than Mallett, especially if you have to spend a higher pick to get Locker! ...Unless Mallet really is a drunk or something of that nature, which anything is possible, but if he is, it sure hasn't affected his play so far. If Julio is gone at 10, trading down and trying to get Locker and some more help on O-line or D would be cool too I guess. I will root for whoever our Eagle loving coach wants to draft. I even rooted for McNabb last year, but it never felt right, (kind of like the year we had Deion). But if we can get Julio and the Hog QB, man that's a plan.

Great post. I'd love to get Jones at 10, Mallet at 42, and a few linemen one way or another to give them time to score.

DarthMonk

funbuncher wrote:I was very impressed by Mallet's bowl game against the 2nd ranked D in the country. He was under heavy pressure most of night with Heyward laying on top of him and he kept bringing his over-matched team back. He was throwing deep strikes on clutch 3rd downs that were getting dropped. Watch the first play of the game when nerves were high, and he throws a 25 yd rope across the middle, hits receiver in perfect stride for a would be TD, but the WR was not as ready for the big moment as his QB and drops the ball. 2nd play, another perfect pass, another drop. This was a theme. Even during all that I never saw him embarrass his receivers or anything else you might expect for an allegedly immature guy.

Mallett is not perfect, but that's why he might be available in the 2nd round. How is he a bigger risk than taking Locker in the 1st round? You weren't impressed by Mallet's bowl game, but did you see Locker's bowl game where he went 5 for 16 for 56 yds and the coach took the ball out of his hands with the game on the line? Wouldn't taking him in the 1st round be an even bigger gamble for the Skins?

Stats don't always tell the story, but they sure paint a picture. Look at this:

Locker also had 4 games where he rushed for more than 50 yds, and 6 total Rushing TD's on the season as well. But 9 of his 17 TD's were in two home games, one against a 5th ranked Syracuse team and one against Oregon State's 86th ranked unit in triple overtime. (he had 8 passing TD's in 10 other games combined), I watched the Oregon State game. He was awesome. Showed deep touch under pressure from inside the pocket a couple of times, (which he supposedly doesn't have), and was one of the best athletes on the field. He was beating the defense to the edge constantly. He reminded me of one of my favorite college football players of all time... Heath Shuler. (Remember I'm a Vol fan). I threw a party the day the Skins drafted him. woops. Side note... Oregon State RB Jacquizz Rodgers would annoy the crap out of opposing defenses for us. That 5' 6" ball of cat-quick muscle put his foot in the dirt next to the sideline and stole 10 more yds over and over again. He was actually delivering the blow and carrying some defenders on inside runs. Love that kid... Anyway, back to Locker, it was a great game for him, and he was impressive, but he's playing a different type of game. He repeatedly takes one look for his WR and then takes off running. Maybe that can be coached out. He even did it during the 2 minute drill though. One play was so obvious the announcers stopped and showed the audience the wide open guy down-field that they thought Locker looked directly at, but then inexplicably ran instead. Right now at least, that's his first instinct. It's going to take a while to get down the field like that, but it can work. Watching Mallet look people off and take shot after shot down the field is like watching a totally different brand of football, and I don't have to tell you which one more resembles the pro game.

Anyway, if you forget all the lip-smackers, and really just watch these guys play football and execute the job of QB, and honestly look at their stats, it's hard to make the case (to me at least) that Locker is somehow less risky than Mallett, especially if you have to spend a higher pick to get Locker! ...Unless Mallet really is a drunk or something of that nature, which anything is possible, but if he is, it sure hasn't affected his play so far. If Julio is gone at 10, trading down and trying to get Locker and some more help on O-line or D would be cool too I guess. I will root for whoever our Eagle loving coach wants to draft. I even rooted for McNabb last year, but it never felt right, (kind of like the year we had Deion). But if we can get Julio and the Hog QB, man that's a plan.

funbuncher wrote:Anyway, it's all due to off the field stuff, the supposed missed meeting in Carolina, potential drinking problem, immaturity issues, etc...

this is just a bunch of bunk - anybody with any intelligence knows that both the team and the player's people confirmed he was NOT sufferring any affects from drinking - it was blown way out of proportion before the real 'story' came out

this kid is getting some rough treatment and it would be great to see him get drafted well and make it to a franchise that can help him develop

P A T I E N C E - Scot & Jay's goal here is to make this franchise better - it will take time they understand the need to change to primarily building through the draft - plus have some luck go their way

The whole Panther thing got blown out of poportion. His Agent and him both were sick and they called the night b4 to let the team know they would not be able to make it but wanted to reschedule. I find it funny b/c there are reports but no photo's. With all the camera phones and crazy fan's in CLT, come on MAN~!~~

Disagree. I don't trust our FO with lower round picks. If we can't get a qb, take Stephen Paea, who would fill our need at NT.

The front office of Bruce Allen and Mike Shanhan? Their track record is unknown, at least here at Redskins Park. Last year their 3rd rounder had already been used by Cerrato for Jarmon. They used the 4th for Perry Ellis, TBD. The 5th was for Adam Carriker. Doubt very much we could have drafted a player better than Carriker in the 5th round.

Personally, I wouldn't be shocked if Mallet was still there in the 3rd round anyway. Dalton will be the next QB to go.

I think it's funny that people have concerns about Mallet's character and off the field issues with drinking.

John Riggins showed up drunk to team meetings and pulled three chairs together once to take a nap during one. In the locker room once he passed out and pissed all over himself.

People thought it was charming, but nowadays that sort of behavior would have had him cut immediately. He would never have made it in this kind of 24 hour news cycle.

Who cares is Mallet is a partier? If he shows up on game days, that's all I care about.

Still want Dalton though.

"Guess [Ryan Kerrigan] really does have a good motor. And is relentless. And never quits on a play. And just keeps coming. And probably eats Wheaties and drinks Apple Pie smoothies and shaves with Valvoline." -Dan Steinberg DC Sports Bog

Skinsfan55 wrote:I think it's funny that people have concerns about Mallet's character and off the field issues with drinking.

John Riggins showed up drunk to team meetings and pulled three chairs together once to take a nap during one. In the locker room once he passed out and pissed all over himself.

People thought it was charming, but nowadays that sort of behavior would have had him cut immediately. He would never have made it in this kind of 24 hour news cycle.

Who cares is Mallet is a partier? If he shows up on game days, that's all I care about.

Still want Dalton though.

John Riggins wasn't the QB either. and for all of Riggins antics, I don't recall him getting arrested, going to trial or jail.

In addition, in this day and age, players, especially franchise QB's are expected to practice hard and study the offense dilligently. If your franchise QB is out on a binge, your complicated offensive scheme goes on the shelf too.